Storygathering, Storyshaping, Storytelling – A 3-part process to tell brand stories
Too many brand want to tell their stories but start their process from the end. Here is our 3-part process to do it the right way.
Storytelling cannot happen is you don’t have good, relevant stories to tell.
You thus need to gather stories first.
Storytelling cannot happen if you are not adapting your stories to the audience it wants to impact and the context in which it will live.
You thus need to shape stories first.
This is the process that makes great brand storytelling happen.
Your brand must have a process to gather stories from your organization. Your internal stakeholders need to know what stories you want to tell and bring these to you as a marketer or brand storyteller.
This is it:
? Storygathering -> ⚙️ Storyshaping -> ? Storytelling
What stories do you want to tell? You can have a look at the “Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell” book to have an idea. (Awful title in my opinion, but great read ? )
Start storygathering now.
There’s never a better moment to do it than now.
Once you get these stories and put them into your story library, you can then start seeing how they will be used, what needle they can help you move, when and in what context. This is the storyshaping part.
Format of content, type of content, duration, length, platforms, audio, video, editorial, this is where you think about how you can be the most relevant for your audience, how you can transform that story into value on the receiving end.
Once that is done, you can finally START STORYTELLING THE HELL OUT OF IT. Distribute it, amplify it, give it a life.
We so often see organizations do it the other way around:
1. We need a story for our Facebook post
2. It’s been a while since we published a video
3. Let’s find a great narrative
This is the wrong order.
Build your story library first.
Then pick your best story, the one that will make whatever needle you need to move.
AND THEN STORYTELL THE HELL OUT OF IT.
Hat-tip to the crew at Toast Studio for making organizations get better at this everyday!
What is Storygathering?
Storygathering is the act of have a process in place that makes sure your brand is collecting relevant and interesting stories about itself, stories that will later be used throughout the organization.
What is Storyshaping?
Storyshaping is the work done by brand storytellers when they adapt a story to the audience it wants to make an impact on and the context in which it will be used. Audience adaptation might include tone, manner, narrative, and context means the format and type of content that will be used to publish and distribute the story.
What is brand Storytelling?
Storytelling is the act of telling a brand’s story (or stories) in a way that creates value and engagement with its target audience. It is the process of publishing, distributing, amplifying a story that generates brand value for the organization.